Category: News

  • It’s Here

    My first February in New York was back in 2007. What I remember most was that the week leading up to Valentine’s, the temperature never got above 30 degrees. For a kid who grew up in Texas, where fridge weather was 40 degrees, I thought I would never be warm again. And I was running around the City in Black canvas All-Stars, so the fact that I still have all of my toes is pretty impressive.

    Now that we are back in New York, and February is drawing to a close, there has only been one day when the high temperature was below freezing. This is pretty shocking to me as February is the coldest month of the year here. And what it actually feels like is the start of Spring around here.

    We have to admit that climate change isn’t coming; its already here.

    It was apparent that the climate had changed in out 18 months in California. In that time, it went from, “Who odd that this weather disaster happened again,” to “We should just plan on this weather disaster every year now.”

    Australia knows that it is here.

    When we moved back, my daughter was excited that we would get to be around snow again. This Winter of 19/20 has a good likelihood of having no snow at all.

    I know that we can come together and stop this from getting worse. It will take commitment, political drive, and sacrifices from every corner of the world.

    I just wonder if we will ever return to the way the climate used to be.

  • Enablers

    I was nervous that Harvey Weinstein wouldn’t get convicted. I hadn’t been following the case closely, as I felt that it was only a 50/50 shot, he would be found guilty, and I had already decided that I believed the survivors. I didn’t need a jury to justify my stance.

    But Harvey is going to jail, and I hope that this brings about the beginning of the end of the idea that there are “untouchable” men in any industry that take advantage of their position.

    Now, it’s time that we start addressing the enablers that helped Harvey. The agents who sent women to his hotel room, and office. The directors who were ordered to put women in, or take them out of their movies, the assistants who heard what was happening and did.

    I know that there are people out there that want to punish all of these enablers, and I understand where they are coming from. And that may or should happen.

    From my experience, and I have spent some time in theatre education, it needs to start in all theatre classes, and be reiterated again, and again, all the way up to grad school, and supported by all the unions in the entertainment industry. There needs to be an ethical standard that everyone needs to understand and follow. And I’m talking about simple things like no more one on one meetings between actors and producers or directors. Actors/artist have the right to have an advocate present at all times.

    Harvey didn’t create this world of casting couches, and treating women as if they are disposable. And it is wrong for us to believe that even if these few men that have been outed by #MeToo all go to jail that this issue will go away. We have to start building the new acceptable culture of the entertainment industry today.

  • Moderates Don’t Get It

    I like Bret Stephens, and I know that he is a very smart guy. He is knowledgeable, logical, and pretty funny as well. He put out this op-ed in the New York Times today, titled, “The Democrats Are in Trouble: The party’s riskiest bet is now its likeliest.” A little dramatic, but hey, they guy is trying to sell papers here.

    Bret starts off by saying that he is/was for Bloomberg, but Mike melted down at the debate, and now the Democratic party is in dire straits because, as Bret sees it, Bernie is now going to win the nomination.

    Stephens then rhetorically asks, why Democrats want to risk it with Sanders, to which Bret answers;

    “Maybe it’s because they have overlearned the lessons of the 2016 election: that nominating the centrist and responsible candidate served them poorly. Or maybe it’s because they’ve reasoned that “electability,” being an insufficient requirement for the nomination, is an unnecessary one as well. Or maybe they feel that, when their hearts scream Yes, it’s best to ignore the brain’s screams of No.”

    Sadly, what will cause the Democrats to lose in the Midwest, which is where this election is really coming down to, is this thinking that people in the middle of this country want a person to be reasonable and logical, and to have a plan that appeals to everybody. That’s the “electability” that Stephens refers, and that might be a winning argument if the other guy was Mitt Romney or John McCain, two who also tried to run campaigns aimed at the middle and “electability.”

    Except, that’s not who is running.

    Look, I don’t like Trump, but compared with a Democrat moderate, Donald comes off as the cool guy who doesn’t give a fuck. That makes voters excited, and excited voters show up.

    Bernie has the most excited votes behind him, and they will get others to show up with them.

    Again, people, there are no significant numbers of swing voters out there. Again, read “The Audacity of Hate,” if you don’t believe me. To that, I just have to add, Democrat moderates, ya’ll gotta chill out, man. Bernie is not the problem.

    The belief that logic will beat passion is.

  • Don’t Fight the Last War

    There is a very good chance that Democrats will lose this next election, ensuring that Trump gets four more years. It’s not that Democrats are moving too Left. It’s the fact that there really aren’t any more moderate Democrats left.

    It was hammered home to me in “The Audacity of Hate” by Thomas B. Edsall that I read yesterday. Edsall starts the piece by referring to Karl Rove and Matthew Dowd deciding on a “Base Strategy” for the Bush ’04 campaign, wherein they would go after the social conservative base by appealing to fear and anger. The reasoning; less than 1 in 10 voters was considered to be “swing voters.” Turning out the converted made more sense than hoping to convert the questionable. And it worked. It worked so well, that Trump did it again in ’16, and he’s trying again in ’20.

    But the Democrats are still playing a game of winning moderates over, and they have a serious fear of Bernie. This is where they are making the same mistakes they made with Hilary. Sure, moderates would save the party for the future, but the base will win the election. You need people excited and enthusiastic about winning to get out there, and talk up Bernie, and get people to show up in droves.

    Can Bernie actually deliver all of his promises? No, but has Trump delivered on any of his? Trump’s base thinks so, and they will show up in the polls.

  • The Barr Saga Continues

    I know the NYTimes is reporting that Barr is upset with Trump for calling himself the law of the land, but the cynical part of me is still having a hard time believing that is true. I guess there is a chance that Barr has been blindsided by Trump, and that Barr honestly wants to do the right thing… Yeah, I just don’t buy it.

    What I see is more along the lines of Pandora’s box or a tube of toothpaste. Trump is out and you can’t put him back in. That’s what makes me think is happening to Barr and the Justice Department right now. They cannot contain the President anymore after the impeachment trial. I believe that is why Trump’s pardons and commutations happened yesterday. That was Trump flexing muscle, saying to Barr and Justice, that if you convict my people, I will just release them, and belittling your work.

    Also, to digress for a second… The people who got the pardons and commutations all committed white collar crimes. It’s also like Trump is saying that bribery, tax evasion, corruption aren’t really crimes. I find it funny, as that those are the crimes that have always been swirling around Trump.

    What is left is for Barr to resign, and that places us all in a “devil you know,” situation. I thought Jeff Sessions was a bad choice, but then we got Matthew Whitaker who was amazingly unqualified, which lead to Barr who was supposedly was going to be “an adult in the room,” but we see how that worked.

    So… who is hiding out there to be next?